Ilana Pardes

Ruth is a wide-ranging exploration of the story of Ruth, a foreigner who became the founding mother of the Davidic dynasty. The biblical Ruth has inspired numerous readers from diverse cultural backgrounds across many centuries. In this insightful volume, Ilana Pardes invites us to marvel at the ever-changing perspectives on Ruth’s foreignness. She explores the rabbis’ lauding of Ruth as...

An essential history of the greatest love poem ever written, The Song of Songs has been embraced for centuries as the ultimate song of love. But the kind of love readers have found in this ancient poem is strikingly varied. Ilana Pardes invites us to explore the dramatic shift from readings of the Song as a poem on divine love...